The Dark Side of Isaac Newton: A Modern Biography

by Nick Kollerstrom, Nick Kollerstrom Kollerstrom

Overview

Isaac Newton was accorded a semi-divine status in the 18th and 19th centuries, whereby his image linked together religion and science. The real human being behind the demi-god image has tended to be lost. He was a person who took credit from others, and crushed the reputations of those to whom he owed most. This most brilliant of mathematicians could alas be devious, deceptive and duplicitous. This work doesn't go looking at unpublished alchemical musings as is nowadays fashionable, rather it sticks to the historical record. At the time when the new science was born, we scrutinise the ways in which he failed to discover the law of gravity or invent calculus. What exactly did Leibniz mean by describing him as 'a mind neither fair nor honest'? Why did Robert Hooke describe him as 'the veriest knave in all the house' and why was the astronomer Flamsteed calling him SIN (Sir Isaac Newton)?

We are here concerned to give him credit for what he did discover, which may not be quite what you had been told. This book redefines the genius of Isaac Newton, but without the heavily mythologised baggage of a bygone era. He believed in one God, one law and one bank.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781399078009
Publisher:	Pen and Sword
Publication date:	10/30/2024
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Following completion of his natural science degree at Cambridge specialising in the history and Philosophy of Science, Nick Kollerstrom worked for the Medical Research Council’s Air Pollution Unit. This resulted in his first book _Lead on the Brain_, an investigation into lead pollution from petrol, and this was promoted by the Green Party to raise awareness. While living in Guildford, he worked as a secondary school maths teacher for five years. He worked in the local Green Party and it was very successful; in 1989 they secured 22% of the vote for West Surrey Green Party in the Euro-election.

While studying at Emerson College and working on a bio-dynamic farm he became interested in planting by the Moon and lunar influences. He collaborated with Simon Best producing Britain’s lunar gardening Calendar from 1980 which has now been running for 35 years, _Planting and Gardening by the Moon_. For a while he was the BBC’s lunar gardening correspondent.

He has authored many books exploring a wide variety of subjects, including _The Unnecessary War_ (1988), _Newton’s Forgotten Lunar Theory_ (2000) _Crop Circles, the Hidden Form_ (2002), _Terror on the Tube_ (2009), and _Venus, the Path of Beauty_ (2017).